Weekly lads' mag Zip to relaunch three months after its closure

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A former sister title to lads’ magazine Loaded is to relaunch later this month, three months after it first closed.

Zip magazine was started by Loaded owner Paul Baxendale-Walker in March this year before being axed in May after nine issues.

The weekly will return to shelves on Friday 23 August with a cover price of £1.90 and a planned print run of 50,000. Although a source said that it would be distributed in “most supermarkets and newsagents", Press Gazette understands that the UK's leading retailer Tesco will not stock the title.

Before its closure, Zip's circulation was understood to be around the 6,000 mark.

It now claims to have an editorial staff of four. Around half of its content is to be produced in-house. It is also using freelances and encouraging “social interaction” with readers, who it hopes will send in stories.

On its website, Zip was calling for teenagers – between the ages of 18 and 19 – to send in pictures of their breasts for a feature called: "Ten teen tits for special 10th edition". But the page calling for entries, and tweets plugging it, have today been deleted.

Although it is no longer owned or published by Loaded, it will share web designers with its former sister title.

Earlier this summer, Loaded’s publisher, Blue Publishing, went into administration, leaving many staff and freelances unpaid. It is now published by Loaded Media Ltd, which has the same owner, Baxendale-Walker.

The relaunch comes amid growing pressure on lads’ mags over their use of sexual imagery and language. The Co-operative Group has told Loaded and other magazines to package themselves in “modesty” bags while Tesco has told the titles to tone down their front covers.